Queen of Darkness
by jrane
Summary: There must always be a balance between good and evil. But now that the Dark Lord has been vanquished, what new evil is set to arise? Set directly following the final battle at Hogwarts, we pick up with a familiar character who is about to set out on a journey that will change the face of the world. The Dark Queen comes for us all. *I do not own Harry Potter. Obviously.
1. Chapter 1

All of her anger was spent, all of her rage exhausted. She was tired, weak, used up, and trembling. She couldn't even lift her wand hand to push her black hair out of her face, much less try to defend herself. Fortunately, the fight was over. The Death Eaters were defeated, Voldemort vanquished. Unfortunately, her very best friend in the world was dead, gone forever from this world. She couldn't find the strength to speak, to beg Lavender to wake up. She didn't have the strength to try to close the gaping wound at her friend's neck. She didn't have the strength to look away, to try to send a message to her friend's parents, to do anything. So she did the only thing people devastated by loss can do. She wept, she cried, she literally balled and wailed and screamed.

Her loss was clear to those around her, but she paid them no mind. She did not see Harry walk by, one broken wand in one hand, Dumbledore's in the other. She did not see Neville standing stock still as though someone had put a full body binding curse on him, staring at the sword in his hand, snake blood dripping slowly down the blade. She did not notice the wails of grief from the Weasleys as they learned of their own loss. She did not hear the crackles and pops and latent sighs of spells wearing off. She did not feel the warm hands of several passing friends and strangers offering their condolences. She did not feel the cold breeze brush by her, lifting into the air. She did not hear the angry whispers surround her, unintelligibly cursing fate itself. She did not register the freezing feeling assault her body as though she had jumped into the lake in the middle of a snow storm. Of course, no one else felt or heard any of these last few things either. But what Parvati Patil did feel, what she did hear, was an all too familiar cackle of laughter echo throughout her consciousness.

"_Oh, my dear child,_" the disembodied voice of Bellatrix Lestrange cooed into her mind, "_We are going to have such fun, you and I. Such fun._"


	2. Ascent

Parvati watched as a prisoner in her own mind as Bellatrix took control of her body, standing her up and walking out of the great hall and out onto the grounds. Terrified that she would harm one of her friends, she pleaded with her spectral captor. "Please!" She screamed mentally, "Do what you will with my body. Just don't hurt anyone else!"

Bellatrix just laughed and laughed and laughed as Parvati watched the ground moving under her feet, her arms swinging in the wrong way, and felt her hips swaying in a most seductive manner. Admittedly, she was known to give her hips a bit of a swish when she wanted to catch some attention, but it was so profoundly wrong to have this other presence using her body that way—especially one so repulsive as Bellatrix Lestrange. "Now, now honey. You'll soon see, I'm not as repulsive as you believe," Bellatrix sang into her consciousness. The sudden realization that her thoughts were being shared as well as her body caused Parvati to shrink as far into her mind as she could go. "There we go," Bellatrix purred, "Nice and compliant. All Gryffindors are cowards when confronted in an arena where they have no idea how to fight back."

Several people attempted to talk to Parvati as her body was steered across the grounds towards the Forbidden Forest. Bellatrix simply had her smile and keep on walking. Whether it was due to emotional strain everyone present was under, or the emotional strain they all thought she must be under, no one attempted to stop her or inquire as to why she was smiling such an unsettling smile. They went on their way and Parvatrix kept on hers.

"I like the sound of that, don't you?" Bellatrix proposed to her inner captive, "Parvatrix. Parvatrix! Parvatrix!" Parvati didn't respond, she was too worried that her captor would somehow gain more access to her thoughts. She couldn't suppress the mental shudder, however, which was apparent to both of them. Bellatrix was elated, "Yes! That's the precise reaction I want!" Parvati felt her smile grow impossibly wide, her cheek muscles straining with the effort. "You and I, we shall become the new terror of this world. They thought the Dark Lord was horrible, we shall rule together as the Dark Queen!" This time the evil laugh emanated out around the area, causing Parvati to have another shudder.

"I don't want to be a Dark Queen with you…" she meekly thought towards her captor.

"Then it's a good thing you don't currently have a choice in the matter, isn't it? Trust me, you'll come around soon enough." Bellatrix was quiet for a moment, and Parvati could almost feel her evil mind working. "I'll make you a deal. You don't fight me, and I won't use your body to kill any of your family. Agreed?"

Parvati had never been daft, had been an expert at not only Divination, but also Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration-considered to be one of the hardest forms magic. She heard the underlying threat, she just didn't see any way around it. She also took a little hope in the new-found knowledge that she might be able to fight this perverse possession. "Okay," she whimpered, playing the required part, "just don't hurt them, please!"

Professor Trelawny had declared that Parvati had the makings of a true Seer, which had excited her to no end at the time. But the centaur Firenze had revealed to her on his last day at the post that she had been wrong. While Parvati was certainly strong in the area of Divination, it was not because she was to be a Seer. It was because she was susceptible to the influences of spirits. He had taught her what he knew of the spirit arts, but he did so with a warning. "You can, if you so choose, commune with spirits to find out all sorts of hidden information from the present and the past," he had begun, "but the future is just as concealed to spirits as it is to us. So, unless you find the spirit of a true Seer, then you will not be able to divine the future. Even so, the hidden knowledge you can obtain can be tremendously helpful. You could, for instance, find out the location of a missing child or solve a murder. You could even find out the location of a powerful artifact, if you were so inclined. But be warned, every time you make contact with a spirit, you make yourself more vulnerable to possession."

And so she studied into it on her own, reading volumes and volumes on the subject in the restricted section of the library. She still attended her normal classes, still hung out with her normal friends, still studied with ever increasing intensity, but she also lost sleep studying this new ability she wanted to master. Finally, in her seventh year, whilst under the duress of the Death Eater regime at school, Parvati tried it for the first time. She was waiting in the Room of Requirement by the picture of Dumbledore's sister. It was her turn to wait for any messages that might come from the outside world, and she was quite bored with just sitting there. So she focused her thoughts, centralizing her focus. She meditated this way for some time before she felt it.

Summoning a spirit isn't like one might expect: she says some arcane chant and a spirit materializes out of thin air. No, the spirit, called by the summoner's inborn ability, is pulled temporarily from where ever it currently is in this world, and is drawn out through a portal opened in the summoner's own spirit. It is not something that can be taught, one must be born with the talent. And it is most certainly not pleasant for either the summoner or the summoned. Most such interactions are quick and to the point, so as to not prolong the suffering of either party.

The pain Parvati started to experience almost immediately made her lose her concentration. But she had read about this and fully expected it. She refocused her thoughts in just the nick of time to hold on to the spirit who tried to use the opportunity to escape back whence he came. Regretting his bad luck, the spirit floated the remaining way out of the portal now open in Parvati's chest.

"Quickly, young one. Ask of me but one question, as a reward for your first summoning, and I will answer it to the best of my ability," the spirit said, slowly. Not because that's how spirits talk. Indeed, the stereo-typical long drawn out rattling speech of most any ghost in the movies couldn't be further from the truth. Most any spirit generally communicates just as well as any human being. No, a summoned spirit must contend with its own spectral pain caused by the summoning.

Parvati was ecstatic! Most texts had said that the first attempt rarely resulted in a successful summoning, and it was far more exceedingly rare for the summoner to get to actually ask a question. It was said that only one Talented, as they were called in the books, in a thousand years had enough raw talent to make this achievement. Her excitement, however, was tempered by the constant paid of her spirit being ripped open to maintain the portal. She thought quickly, as she had not prepared a question in the expectation of failing, and decided almost immediately.

"Instead of a direct question," she began, "I want to learn a new spell."

"Very well. Raise your wand like so," the spirit lifted a spectral wand of his own, "and slash at your target. This movement, combined with the proper word, will most certainly cause grievous harm to your target. Careful, as very few know this spell, and even fewer people know the counter curse. I, myself, only know it due to having been killed with it by its creator."

As the spirit began to fade back into the portal Parvati exclaimed, "Wait! What is the word to complete the spell?!"

The ghost still faded, away his face somber, sad, and, for some reason unknown to the talented girl, disappointed. "The word is, 'Sectumsempra'." And with that the spirit vanished, the pain in her chest going with it.

"So," Bellatrix purred, "There is a little dark to you, isn't there?"

Parvati was deeply ashamed, she had not realized that Bellatrix had accompanied her down memory lane. She would have to more careful in the future. She checked her surroundings and noticed that they were well and good into the forest at this point. It was densely wooded here, so much so that none of the light from the rising sun illuminated anything. It was as though it was still night, only darker as though the foul mood of the forest deepened the shadows.

"Now what?" Parvati asked timidly.

"Now," her captor cooed, "We begin our ascent." And with that, Bellatrix twirled in place, popping out of space and time and reappearing somewhere quite different.


	3. Paths, Both Remembered and New

The first thing Parvati noticed was the sound of waves crashing and the smell of salt in the air. Next, she took in the dark grey sky, billowing with purple storm clouds threatening to douse her in a torrential down pour. The beach she stood on was completely devoid of any other person, deserted presumably due to the storm brewing. Bellatrix forced her creepy little smile onto Parvati's face and asked, "Can you guess where we are, wee protege?" It was so disconcerting to hear the intruders voice come out of her mouth, the accent all wrong and the pitch skewed horribly.

Resigning herself, temporarily, to her fate, Parvati thought back, "I would presume that we are on some coast of some ocean at the onset of some storm." She thought she could almost feel her face start to pull into her normal sarcastic smirk, but must have imagined it. The face did, indeed, pull out of the half scary smile, but continued straight into a grimace of rage, and then almost instantaneously bounced back to grinning.

Bellatrix's thoughts dripped with barely concealed anger, "No, no, no little miss cheeky. We are standing at our first destination down the relatively short road to ultimate power. We are at the Dead Sea, and it is here that we will start our journey together."

With that, Parvati felt her left arm raise, wand in hand, straight up in the air. Her hair stood on end as she felt her metal jailer concentrating with considerable might on something in the clouds. All of a sudden, Bellatrix slung her arm straight down as fast as humanly possible with the wand ending up pointing directly in front of them, hardly centimeters from her feet. Not half a second later a lightning bolt struck directly where she was pointing, but all of the energy was immediately trapped into some sort of tightly compressed bubble of magic. The energy swirled around and around inside the bubble, hypnotizing and dizzying all at once; it distracted Parvati enough that she almost didn't notice that Bellatrix wasn't done yet. She tried to keep up and memorize each of the strange gestures coupled with the required concentrations and focuses, and what was happening when each ministration was complete. She was always thirsty to learn new things, and she wasn't going to let her predicament keep her from it. After the initial capture of the lightning bolt, Bellatrix swiped the wand diagonally across their body, beginning from their right thigh, and ending above their left shoulder. This result was the ball of electricity expelled all of its energy in a beam of power directed directly across the water. When it got to approximately half way across the Dead Sea, Bellatrix brought their hands together, wand in between. Their brow was furrowed in concentration, Parvati adding her own power to the spell as she started to grasp the purpose. All of a sudden, the beam of energy exploded against some sort of force field. The air shimmered around the detonation site, the fabric of the sky seeming to ripple like disturbed water. Bellatrix, exhausted from the shear difficulty of summing, trapping, releasing, and the aiming such a primal force of nature, forced Parvati's body to sit down. Bellatrix had learned that spell from the Dark Lord himself, though he preferred to use it by channeling the bolt directly into his wand. She didn't particularly care for the damage that it caused to the wand, not to mention that she didn't know just how strong Parvati's wand was. They watched as the air began to unfold itself to reveal a castle nestled in the middle of the Sea, complete with a stone path that was slowly rising out of the ocean towards where they were located.

"How did you know this was here?" Parvati asked through her mind.

Bellatrix didn't answer in the traditional sense. "Let me show you, wee Gryffindor." And with that, her captor snatched her consciousness and dragged it into her twisted memory lane. At first, Parvati saw nothing but blurred images rushing past, felt nothing but constant, twisting pain with extremely brief moments of joy or elation. The effect was severely dizzying, but all of a sudden it stopped. She was standing in the exact spot that they had been sitting, but there was no longer any storm in the sky. The beach wasn't deserted either. A man stood on the beach, wizard's robes flapping in the wind and nose in a book, and a small girl standing at his side holding on to his pocket. Both of them had hair blacker than midnight and, while the man's was cropped short to his head, the girl's was long and curly. The castle was still invisible, it's protective barriers still in place. They all stood there as the man read through the book, skipping pages at a time as he searched. Finally, with a shout of triumph, he pointed to something on the page and showed it to the little girl at his side.

"There, Bella, you see?" he said, "It says right there. 'The castle, which houses the first part of the artifact, lies in the middle of the Sea of the Dead, and can only be revealed by a show of immense power wielded simultaneously by two who are one.'"

"What does that mean, daddy?" the little girl asked.

He looked thoughtfully at his daughter, "Well, if you take it literally, it means that two people have to join and then demonstrate their combined power." The girl vigorously nodded her head in understanding. "But," he continued, "I hardly think that is the case. Surely, it is some sort of riddle. Possibly it simply means that two people cast the same spell, at the same time, at the same place, and directed towards the same target."

The little version of Bellatrix Lestrange, the only version of her that was innocent and sweet for any amount of time, cocked her head to the side and asked, "But if it is literal, daddy, how do you do that?"

"Well," he laughed, "that would be a matter of possession, I'm afraid." His laugh was hearty and warm, but he sobered up rather quickly when he realized that his daughter was in serious thought over what he just said. "Now, Bella," he said, "We don't practice that kind of magic. Understood?"

"Yes, daddy." She looked heart broken.

The vision faded and Parvati found herself trapped, once again, in her own mind as Bellatrix began walking her body towards the stone path that had completed it's emergence during their reverie. The path was narrow, with only enough room for a single person able to walk across at a time. The stone itself was slippery, wet, and eroded from what was likely decades if not centuries submerged in salt water. With surprising finesse, Bellatrix kept from falling in even once. Impressive considering the amount of concentration Parvati could tell it was taking her captor to effectively keep control over a body that was completely unfamiliar to her. There was just one time that they almost fell into the water when one of their knee high boots slipped on a stray piece of sea weed, but Bellatrix deftly caught them by going down on one knee. The trip across went without any other incident until they were finally at the castle. There they found a square platform roughly twenty feet across that connected the walkway to the door. It was there that the guardian awoke.

A giant hand rose out of the water with a huge splash and just barely missed them as it slammed onto the side of the platform. It's match landed seconds afterward as they pulled up the largest inferi either of them had ever imagined. Both of them looked on in terror as the undead giant finished its climb onto the platform. It stood well over 30 feet tall, muscled flesh drooping in some places and well preserved in others. The dead eyes immediately locked on to the single target in front of it and lunged with amazing speed and accuracy, and without any sort of warning or hesitation. They barely dodged out the way, Bellatrix springing into action while Parvati was still dumbstruck with terror at the challenge in front of them. Brandishing their wand, Bellatrix conjured a whip of fire from its tip and struck out against the zombie's enormous backside. The creature screamed an ear splitting shriek and jumped straight into the water.

"Good thing I've got control of your body, baby Gryffindor," Bellatrix intoned with irritation, "Other wise we'd be dead meat already. Harry Potter didn't prepare you to defend against this kind of dark magic did he?" The venom was almost dripping out of her captor's voice.

"I'm s-s-s-sorry!" came Parvati's shaky reply, "I remember studying the imperi under Snape, but he never mentioned that they could made from anything other than humans! I mean, aren't giants supposed to be highly resistant to magic?"

"Yes, my sweet, they are," her captor explained, "but with enough power you do things no other witch or wizard could possibly imagine. This is what we are going to accomplish. We are going to do the impossible." The excitement in her captor's voice was palpable, infectious. Parvati found herself, not completely regrettably, lost in the thought of wielding that amount of power.

Parvatrix walked the length of the platform quickly, lest the giant imperi rise yet again. The doors the approached were huge, big enough that the guardian itself would fit through comfortably. They were wrought of what appeared to be pure gold, and had arcane symbols and writing all over them. Bellatrix lifted their wand and simply tapped the center of the doors, which caused them to open inward of their own accord.

"How did you know that would work?" Parvati asked of her captor.

Bellatrix laughed maniacally, "I didn't! It was certainly worth the try though."

And, together, they entered the threshold.


	4. A Lich Among Us

The halls were made of pure gold and were covered in what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphs. Parvati barely had any opportunity to study them as Bellatrix forced her body forward at a ridiculous speed. Despite everything going on, Parvati was largely disappointed at not being able to sate her curiosity – which then became disappointment in herself because she was more worried about the ancient carvings than trying to get out of this predicament.

Bellatrix's cackling laughter filled her mind, "Poor wittle Gwiffindor, twapped in her own body, can't do what she wants."

The mocking baby talk shamed Parvati into a rage. "I may not have control now, whore, but you have no idea what I'm capable of."

"You insolent wretch," her captor whispered, "this is your last warning. Fight me and you will watch your family tortured and then killed by your own hand. See through your own eyes as their faces turn from loving trust to confused terror as their beloved Parvati curses them over and over and over. YOU WILL KNOW PAIN AS YOU HAVE NEVER IMAGINED WAS POSSIBLE!"

Parvati cowered within her mind, shoving her consciousness into the furthest reaches in an attempt to escape the raging and unstable hatred radiating from the spirit residing within her. She shut down, acquiescing to the control. Her fear at not only the display, but also the threat to her loved ones, crippled her resistance. She couldn't let this monster hurt her family, so she would play the good captive and do what she was told. "Okay," she whimpered.

There was no verbal response from Bellatrix, just an immense feeling of satisfaction that emanated from deep inside their shared chest and resonated throughout the rest of their body. Their fingers tingled, their smile was wild and wicked, their heart rate increased, and a certain other area of their body reacted in a way that surprised Parvati almost as much as it disgusted her. Bellatrix was enjoying the domination way too much.

They kept walking, Bellatrix in complete control now that Parvati had tucked herself so deep inside her mind. She was deeply elated in the amount of control she had achieved. Before her death, she had gotten off on controlling people, both within the bedroom and without. But this was different, more primal, and therefore devastatingly more pleasurable. But she couldn't pause to enjoy it. "No," she purred aloud, "I have much more important work to do."

At the end of the entrance hall stood a throne made of black stone, arcane ruins inscribed all over it. Seated upon the throne was a skeletal figure clothed in tattered black robes embroidered in gold with the same arcane script as the throne. It wore a silver crown atop its head that seemed to give off a slight glow. When they came within ten feet of the dead monarch, the crown's glow grew to an almost blinding light, and then retreated to about the level of a couple of torches and began pulsing in conjunction with the beat of their heart. This was disturbing in the extreme to Parvati, but it elicited a giddy excitement in Bellatrix. Both emotions caused adrenaline to course through their veins, so when the skull moved to look straight them they jumped back, startled. The skeleton laughed, cackled really, at them and then stood, spreading its arms wide and then bowing deeply.

"Creepy," thought Bellatrix.

"Kinda like you," Parvati replied.

"Hardly." Bellatrix was a little indignant at the comparison, and a little mortified at the truth of the statement when Parvati sent a couple of clips from her memory to confirm the observation.

The skeleton prevented any further debate by standing straight and speaking. "Congratulations are in order, I see. You have both passed the first two tests, and the final one is standing before you." He paused for dramatic effect, and the continued. "To obtain the first piece of artifact, you must defeat me in a duel."

"Hmph," Bellatrix said through her stolen mouth, "This should be simple, then. I was hoping for a bit of a challenge." She smiled with Parvati's lips, and stood with her side to the skeleton, wand up and ready.

The skeleton cackled again, and then pushed both boney hands out in front on him causing an invisible force to throw Parvatrix backwards through the air. Landing hard on their back, the air was forced out of their lungs. They struggled to breathe while they stood back up, warry of another assault of force. The skeleton now mirrored their original stance, a wand in hand. Anger coursed through them as the embarrassment of being caught off guard emanated from them both.

In typical Bellatrix fashion, she leapt to the attack immediately. "Avada Kedavra!" she screamed as she directed her wand at the skeleton. She wanted this over with as soon as possible. To her astonishment, the skeleton simply took the blast and answered with a maniacal laughter.

"You can't kill what is already dead, fool. Now, why don't you join me?" He returned his own killing curse at them, narrowly missing as they jumped to the side. Having anticipated this, the skeleton immediately following the blast by waving his wand in their direction, sending an arc of red light that hit them square in the chest before they hit the ground from their leap. Their body was wracked with pain as every nerve ending in their body burned as if they were on fire. It only lasted for a moment, but in all of Bellatrix's life she could not remember such a pain. Not even the Cruciatis curse felt like that, though it could be argued that it was worse as it could be maintained through concentration, while this new attack seemed to be just a blast.

"Stop analyzing the spell and start helping win this fight!" Bellatrix screamed mentally at her captive. "If he wins, you die. I resume my journey to find another host. Got it?"

"Sorry," Parvati replied, focusing her considerable mind on their enemy. "Just keep him occupied, okay?" She got no reply, but felt Bellatrix's understanding. She began by simply observing just how this thing acted and reacted during the fight. She was nearly overcome with the amount of power it seemed to command. It shrugged off most of the spells that managed to hit it, and seemed immune to any spell that affect living things. After Bellatrix narrowly escaped another of the pain spells it seemed to favor, Parvati noticed that its crown would glow brighter in the second prior to it casting a spell. This knowledge bolstered their defenses, allowing Bellatrix to begin to avoid or block most of his spells. The skeleton began to get frustrated, sending more spells quicker than before, no longer laughing at their feeble attempts to destroy it. Inspiration seized Parvati and she acted, elated that the idea may just work. Without meaning to, she brought her own arm up and said, "Reducto!"

The crown on top of the skeleton's head immediately disintegrated, and the skeleton fell into a heap of bones where it was standing. The two of them stood staring in disbelief, wondering if it was really over. The moment quickly passed, and Bellatrix exploded in their mind, lashing out mentally at Parvati. She recoiled back into her hiding spot, overcome with a disembodied pain. Her captor was clearly angry at having been overridden, temporarily unconcerned that it had meant victory.

"I am in control!" she screamed, as much at herself as Parvati, "We do as I say! NOT YOU!"

"Okay," was the feeble answer Parvati gave in response. They both knew, however, that a foot hold had been secured. The relationship between the two had changed, the balance of power shifted ever so slightly. Parvati used the barely contained fear Bellatrix was trying to hide as a mask for her sense of hope. Hope that this could have a very different ending that her captor was envisioning.


	5. That Which Doesn't Kill Us

In a display of raw will, Bellatrix flexed her mental muscles to release Parvati's control completely. Every connection between mind and muscle and tendon and bone was severed, relinquished in lieu of the supernatural influence demanding complete obedience. Their arms reached for the sky and then flew backwards as Bellatrix arched their back, stretching their body into an arch, bending their knees, raising onto the balls of their feet until they stopped as their hands touched ground behind them. Bellatrix walked her feet back as close as they could get to their hands and paused.

"Ooops," her giggle reverberated into the open room, "I forgot to leave just a teensy weensy bit of connections for you. Would you like them back, Parvati?"

The question barely registered to the captive mind, despair was like a thousand ton weight suffocating her ability to form thoughts at all, much less coherent responses. Such was her state that Parvati did not hear the barely concealed malice in her captor's tone, did not know what had been done to her body. A worm was dangled for her, and she did not see the hook. She jumped at the opportunity. "Yes!" she screamed internally.

And so the master torturer did what she did best, she made her captive desire their twisted punishment. Bellatrix reconnected the pain nerves to Parvati's consciousness, revealed to her captive just how painful it is to nearly snap your own back in two, and then hold the position for any length of time. It was unbearable, indescribable pain, and it delighted Bellatrix to no end when Parvati's scream began. She had always enjoyed causing pain, and was an especially big fan of the Cruciatis Curse. But she always kept a special place in her heart for physically using her hands or a weapon or some other sort of muggle device to cause pain. It was her closet turn on, and she never told a soul. It had been so hard to hide her obvious bodily reactions when she was carving those words into the Granger girl. And so she prepared her spiritual self for the gratification that would surely be coming soon from the immense pain she was physically causing her body slave.

Surprise is not a strong enough word to describe what Bellatrix felt when, instead of erotic pleasure waves, she was met with tremendous, literal back breaking pain. Somehow, her slave had used the pain to focus her mind and rebound it towards her captor. Even more astonishing, Bellatrix could not fight it. She could only just barely survive the onslaught, so she looked frantically around for some way to end it. In what felt like several eternities, but what actually amounted to mere seconds, she remembered that she had never reconnected Parvati's connections to the muscles and tendons. She still had control of the body. _"Stupid bitch!" _she screamed at her captive as she popped the leg muscles into attention, causing their legs to fly out straight and their body to hit the floor.

The only sound was of their body's heavy breathing as it tried to come down from the self-induced trauma. Bellatrix said nothing, Parvati said nothing, and both of them were locked behind whatever mental blockades they could form. And for good reason; Bellatrix had shown exactly how easy it was to strip complete control from her captive, but Parvati had also shown that her mind was not so easily broken. It appeared, for the moment, that they were near equals.

This had dire consequences for Bellatrix's plans, but no one had ever dared to imply that she was stupid. It was just cruelty that had jumped her up in rank within the Death Eaters. No, cruelty was plenty abundant in that group. What had made her stand out was her cunning and her loyalty, her steadfast resolve to further whatever she had put her heart to, and the fact that she would go to any length to win. Parvati, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea how she had conjured such a strength of will. It had nothing to do with training or intelligence or wisdom. It was as though Harry had been right all along. No matter how much you prepare, luck will play a large part in any encounter. Parvati has no experience at all with fighting off a possession, but she did. She used their unbreakable link (she was now positive that the control over her magical abilities was dependent on Parvati's soul and mind surviving) to channel what she was experiencing back toward her captor. Now that she saw what could be done, she just needed to figure out the particulars. So she began to deconstruct the complex process from the beginning. _How did this happen in the first place? What exactly does this possession mean for my mental state? How does she keep up with controlling my body, my magic, her magic, and my mind all at the same time? How is it that I can now block her from certain trains of thought? How can I use the transference of the feelings to overpower and then eject her from my body? Once I have these answers, she will learn the hard way why she should never have chosen me to possess. She will know pain on a molecular level._

Bellatrix, not known for her patience, broke the silence first. "We will never speak of this, is that understood?"

"Agreed." Parvati wanted very much to be left alone with her thoughts on the matter.

"Now, let us get our artifact and be on our way. We still have two pieces to earn." Bellatrix hated the fact that Parvati was so strong, and she was positive that the longer it took to obtain the full artifact, the more likely it was that she would be overpowered.

They stood up, stiffly. The pain was very much still present, though significantly less severe. Bellatrix waved their wand above their head releasing a shower of silver petals. They clung to their body, instantly healing their wounds and relieving their pain. Parvati was transfixed that this evil woman would know such powerful healing magic, but kept it to herself. The less she spoke, the more she could keep hidden. But that didn't mean that she couldn't pick up the details on how to perform this new spell.

Walking around the throne, Parvatrix noticed that there was a spiral stair case tucked away in the far corner. Bellatrix explained a few things along the way. "The artifact we're searching for, when complete, is known as the All Staff. A certain sect of Egyptian wizards were fond of using staffs instead of wands. This practice died out nearly as quick as it started due to the obviously unhealthy amount of magical ingredients you can pack into a six foot wand. More wizards died trying to use them than there were to make them." She paused half way up the stairs to stretch, taking the liberty of feeling Parvati up at the same time. "You know, you really are a fine specimen….for a Gryffindor."

"I'd appreciate it," Parvati began, "if you wouldn't befoul my body. I was, however, very interested in what you were talking about before."

Bellatrix cackled aloud as she resumed their climb, "Oh deary, if you insist. Just keep in mind, I am in control. If you want me to be a good girl with your body, then you had best not forget it. Otherwise, I just might find out exactly what your petite figure can handle." She didn't pause for acquiescence, she could feel Parvati's trepidation emanating within their shared head. "Now, legend has it that one staff was created that not only had more power than any wand ever, but was also completely stable. It granted complete control to any wizard it deemed worthy."

"But why is this not in any records? Why isn't it mentioned anywhere in the history books? What makes this anything more than a fairy tale? Aside from the random Egyptian pyramid in the middle of the Dead Sea, of course."

"I know it to be true because I am directly descended from the wizard who created it, deary. It was the entire reason my mother married my father. And he did his very best to uncover all of the secrets regarding the All Staff for her, even dying in the attempt. He loved her, surely, but I know that her motivation was the staff the whole time. But it will be their progeny that will uncover it in the end, and I will use your body to wield it."

Parvati was silent for a time, contemplating how she might use this new information to her advantage. It was obvious that the relationship between Bellatrix's parents was key to why she had ended up the way she did, but how to use that toward her benefit? _I must figure this out before we find the artifact! I cannot let her obtain that kind of power._

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by her captor complaining aloud, "By the Dark Lord's left knee! I swear, the shear amount of stairs in this place is more of a challenge than any of the three tests we had to face to get here."

"By Voldemort's left knee?" Parvati actually laughed. It was absurd just how silly it seemed that not too long ago she would have been terrified to speak that name, but now it held only the sad memory of loss attached to it, not the terror of losing someone new.

"Yes, his left knee. It was widely speculated by those of us in his inner circle that the left side of his body held more magic than the other side. No one but his closest servants ever noticed, but hen he was fresh from casting some big magic, his left side would be warmer than the rest. Quite a bit so, at that."

Unsure on what could possibly be garnered from such arbitrary information, Parvati remained silent for the rest of the climb. It didn't take too much longer, only a few hundred stairs was all that remained for them to climb. But this amount of time was perfect for her contemplate something that seemed to bypass Bellatrix's notice completely. They had been conversing, aloud. Both of them were using her mouth in such seamless fashion that neither had realized that it was happening. Neither of them noticed any kind of transfer of control, neither of them had felt their minds brush at controlling the same part of their body. _The only reason I noticed, I suppose, is that it's my body. It's still weird for someone else to control it, so I notice when it happens._

It seemed, however, that Parvati would have to find time for that later. They were at the top of the stairs, and their prize awaited them just behind a door. That's what Bellatrix's mind was buzzing about, anyway. It appeared that as the captive was slowly becoming accustomed to having the captor in her mind, she was also gaining some benefits. Seamless transfers of control, the ability to force certain feelings upon her, and now she could actually pick up Bellatrix's surface thoughts – and all of this without giving any clue to Bellatrix whatsoever. Some serious plans were beginning to take place, but they would have to be shielded. God only knew what this torturous monster would do if she found out exactly what was going on in Parvati's head.

Both minds were buzzing with anticipation at this point. Parvati for two reasons: One, she didn't want Bellatrix to have the artifact. Two, she wanted to see what the artifact could truly do. Bellatrix for one reason: Power, unlimited, unrivaled, and unconstrained. Their shared arm extended slowly toward the door handle, briefly pausing, and then firmly grasping and flinging the door wide open.

They were blinded by the immense light pouring from the room beyond, though only for a moment. Letting their eyes adjust, they took note of everything around them in an instant; Bellatrix looked left and Parvati looked right. _Woah, I can look where she isn't. But, how?_ The room was utterly bare compared to the rest of the pyramid. There were no wall murals, no decorations, no liches trying to kill them. Only a single pedestal, upon which floated what was definitively part of the artifact displayed in Bellatrix's mind. It was the middle piece, the handle, as it were. It was roughly the length of their torso, and just barely thick enough to fit a large adult hand comfortably. They picked it up and raised it into the light. It was made of pure gold with what looked like some sort of black metal spiraled around it like a vine, with little off shoots going this way and that, but there were no leaves. There were words carved into the staff in several different languages. As they turned it over in their hands, the words blurred and began shaking, the staff vibrating violently. They tried to drop it, but it seemed that they were paralyzed. The words began to meld together, slowly at first, but then picking up speed. Finally, as the last letters melted into the center blob that had formed, everything stopped moving. It was the calm before the release. A burst of energy exploded from the staff, knocking them back through the door and almost down the stairs.

When they woke up, they still held the staff in their hand. They were sore all over, and it felt like they'd been asleep for a long time. Groggily, they looked at where the blob of words had been. The words were in English, so they read them together. "For this power, I offer payment." Everything glowed, everything. The staff, the floor, their shoes, the very air glowed. When it grew to the point in which they couldn't see anymore, Parvati heard a terrible scream that became even more terrifying as she realized that it came from her mouth.

And then it all went dark.


End file.
